HCM CITY — As many as 50 Vietnamese food and beverage (F&B) enterprises, double the number last year, displayed and promoted their products at the THAIFEX-World of Food Asia 2017 held in Bangkok earlier this month.

Leading F&B companies in Việt Nam, including Việt Nam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk), Dân Ôn Foods, Rita Food & Drinks Co Ltd and Minh Phong Green & Agricultural Products JSC, have taken part in the trade show for the last five years.

Many new players, such as Seafarm Liability Limited Company, Lotus Rice Co Ltd and Vĩnh Hoàn Corporation, attended this year’s trade fair.

This year, Vietnamese exhibitors saw a 55 per cent increase in total display area, with the introduction of a new seafood pavilion.

The event provided the exhibitors with an opportunity to consolidate their positions in the market and introduce their latest products, seek partners, and learn about customer demand.

This year, Vietnamese manufacturers brought both cultivated and processed “clean” products that are environmentally friendly and have non-toxic standards. They included organic rice, honey, bird’s nest and cereals, among others.

Other Vietnamese agricultural and food products were promoted as “safe, nutritious and with high quality”, including fruits and vegetables, fresh meat, poultry, processed foods, and milk and dairy products, among others.

The event’s organisers said that Việt Nam, as a rapidly growing ASEAN economy, had a great deal to offer the global businesses attending the trade show.

Võ Thành Vin, international business manager for Vinamilk, said: “This trade event helps establish new business networks. We’re excited to be able to leverage this platform to pursue opportunities for our business to grow as well as promote Vietnamese products to the world.”

“This year, besides a focus on our key products at the Việt Nam pavilion, we also introduced our organic milk to consumers,” he added.

“We were very impressed by the buyers’ programme. It gave us the opportunity to engage with major retailers from around the region, and it was a fruitful session, meeting buyers from both supermarkets and hypermarkets across Thailand,” Vin told Việt Nam News.

Trương Tuyết Hoa, sales director of Vĩnh Hoàn Corporation, said: “This year was the first time we joined Thaifex. We see potential to join the show next year.”

“Thaifex is one of the largest food and beverage trade fairs in the world, and it offers us an opportunity to display our catfish to the world market, especially the Asia market. We closed trade orders worth a total of US$200,000 during the trade show,” Hoa told Việt Nam News.

“Vĩnh Hoàn uses an integrated production chain, from seed to commercial fish farming to processing to export,” she said. “We have been exporting catfish to the US since 1999.”

“To promote Vietnamese catfish to the world market, our standards must ensure food safety and have a traceability system, without causing an adverse impact on the environment,” she added.

Thaifex was co-organised by Koelnmesse, a leading organiser of food fairs and events for food and beverage processing, the Thai Department of International Trade Promotion, and the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

The five-day mega show attracted around 45,000 industry professionals, 2,000 exhibitors and representatives from over 40 countries.

The event, Asia’s largest food and beverage trade show, saw a total of 55,111 visitors from 130 countries, a 30 per cent increase compared to the 2016 show. — VNS